Poisonous accusation of 'Chinese technology theft' reveals racist myth of the US

The Director of the FBI in the United States, Christopher A. Wray, made some bazaar anti-China remarks at a Washington think tank on July 7, whereby he accused the country of engaging in what he described as "theft on a scale so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history" and that the United States "are the victims" of such a heist.

In pushing China-smearing to some extreme, Wray's argument attempted to present the idea that China's entire growth trajectory since 1978 is inherently unjust and at the expense of America's own prosperity, a line long taken by the US administration whom have sought to maliciously exaggerate the extent and scope of "intellectual property" related issues to portray China on treacherous terms on almost everything.

For Chinese themselves, this is offensive and insulting. It is a zero-sum and grossly inflated claim based on age-old racist talking points which portrays Chinese culture as inherently deceitful. In doing so, it ignores that Chinese companies have in fact paid billions for the legitimate purchase of US intellectual property and have consistently been amongst the top genuine achievers in American universities, technology firms and research institutions.

None of Wray's claims or broader narratives are best on any facts whatsoever, with officials in the current US administration continuing to depict US-China relations on "win-lose" terms in order to justify containing its national development, bringing China-smearing to new highs and spreading sinophobia.

The association of China with "theft" is a racist stereotype which long pre-dates the foundation of the People's Republic of China and its governance by the Communist Party of China. The claims stem from a Western prejudice that Chinese culture is untrustworthy when it comes to matters of business.

A 19th century Australian Newspaper in 1886 published an infamous racist cartoon known as the "Mongolian Octopus", the cartoon proceeded to make stereotypes claims about China have continued to the present day, with its tentacles stating "customs robbery", "cheap labour" as well as proceeding to associate Chinese with disease and opioids, all claims which continue to be used currently by some US politicians.

This racist fixation on apparent Chinese theft of intellectual property has not been critiqued for its origins, but instead been pushed to the forefront of American political discourse and treated as a given by Washington and the media. The line seeks to reduce all of China's technological achievements to being rightfully from the United States and depraves the country of legitimacy for its own development.

However the logic is spurious. Politicians and commentators have often accused China of stealing technology of which America itself does not have, including advances in 5G telecommunications technology, Artificial Intelligence, supercomputers and drones. It is not based on serious logic.

The ramifications of such a discourse have seen Chinese students, researchers and innovators become subject to unnecessary political suspicion and targeted as spies and thieves, whilst it has also been unused to push geopolitical attacks against companies such as Huawei. It has built the backbone of the administration's drive to push Chinese students out of key scientific majors at American universities, and of course has been used to manufacture consent and public support for strategic and commercial decoupling from China.

In doing so, any talk of the relationship between the two countries being beneficial or mutually prosperous has been thrown out of the window in favor of a zero-sum game that China's gains come at America's expense, which is false.

In reality, Chinese companies have paid billions of US dollars in the legitimate purchase of American intellectual property, and US companies have made billions selling their intellectual products in the China. Besides, a whole set of laws on the protection of intellectual property rights and exclusive courts have been established in China, which the US politicians simply ignored.

Nowadays US technology companies have suffered because of sanctions on Huawei and have long lobbied against it, many leading American scientists and researchers have been Chinese and statistics show the US has kept a great deal of top Chinese talent who have more often than not joined top companies rather than returning home and so on.

The American public have been poisoned with sinophobic, misleading and utterly contemptuous falsehoods by an administration with a poor record in telling the truth. The FBI chief's comments are not only completely false but they are disgraceful and offensive in writing off China's miracle development.

The author is a British political and international relations analyst. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.